Pivot Point: Outta Insight!

First, our congratulations to Unilever and Mars Advertising for topping the third annual Hub Top 12 of Shopper Marketing Excellence!

For Unilever, it’s a first — and testimony both to Unilever and that shopper marketing is maturing as a discipline. For Mars, it’s the third year in-a-row at the top, which is an amazing accomplishment. It is also not surprising given that Mars built a shopper-marketing infrastructure before it was even called shopper marketing.

Kudos to RPM Connect and TracyLocke, as well. They held onto the number-two and number-three positions, respectively, for the second year in-a-row. Marketing Drive meanwhile zoomed into the number-four spot.

This is no small feat given the intense competition; we had more than twice as many ballots cast this year as last. We also had more than twice as many attempts at ballot-box stuffing, which of course was painstakingly purged. Next year we are going to dock those who attempt this!

But in the meantime, let’s take a moment to bask in the industry’s undeniable progress, while also taking a long, hard look at the work yet to be done.

As you read Chris Hoyt’s “Top 12” report (beginning on page 8), the areas of improvement are plain to see. But so, too, are the areas that lag — most notably research. Obviously, insights are the heart and soul of shopper marketing, the very lifeblood of making shopping better for shoppers.

And so it’s only fitting that this issue of the Hub is dedicated to the challenges and opportunities of understanding why shoppers do what we do … because it’s all about insights, after all.